Her feet were stuck in the river of blood, its putrid scent assailing her senses. Struggling was futile, and each failed attempt multiplied her panic.
She was stuck.
Stuck.
And no one was coming to her aid.
"No..."she whimpered, tears filling her eyes.
A slight movement spotted from the corner of her eye made her look left, and what she saw filled her with horror.
There were two people sinking. Two people she knew she recognized, and yet were unrecognizable to her. Their eyes were wide open, their skin wearing the pallor of corpses. Then suddenly there were many, rising from all around her, bloodied limbs grabbing at her from all sides.
"Murderer,"voices hissed"murderer!".
With a terrified cry, Yingyue jerked awake, her chest heaving.
Gentle arms held onto her, and she turned to see Lanfen's concerned face.
"Mother".
"A-Yue, are you alright?".
Yingyue looked around, noticing that it was still dark outside.
"How long have I been asleep?"she wondered aloud.
"Three days".
Three...!
Then...had her mother spent the night on a chair by her side for three days?
"Mother...".
"Are you okay? You looked so terrified. I've been trying to wake you up... what is it? Another nightmare?".
"A bad one,"Yingyue gulped"a very bad one".
"It's okay,"Lanfen whispered, rubbing her back "it's over now".
"Mother, I feel... strange".
"Strange?".
Lanfen pressed slender fingers to her daughter's wrist, eyes narrowed in concentration.
'This is bad,'she thought,'Huang Yichen's energy is fighting for control'.
"Don't worry, A-Yue. Leave it to me. You'll be fine".
Yingyue nodded,then held her head in her left hand.
"What happened to me?".
"What do you remember?".
"I remember... the party. Those beasts, and the deaths... and...".
"And?"Lanfen urged her.
Yingyue shook her head.
"Nothing else".
Lanfen breathed out with relief.
"You passed out,"she said"from shock".
"Oh"Yingyue mumbled.
Why did she get this nagging feeling that it was nowhere as simple as that?
Well, whatever. Right now she was too exhausted to even think. She reclined back into a lying position, her eyes falling shut.
"I'm tired. I need to go back to sleep".
"Then sleep, my sweet,"Lanfen kissed her forehead"mother will take care of everything".
*
*
*
It had taken Xinyue days to finally go to see her sister. She had begun walking towards the room several times, only to stop midway and turn back.
But finally, she stood before the door,braced herself, and opened it.
Yingyue was in bed, fast asleep. She had been sleeping a lot since that incident, and waking up so weary that she would go right back to sleep. There was no doubt that this latest development had everything to do with what had happened at the party, although no one knew exactly what was going on with Yingyue.
Except for Lanfen, perhaps.
Xinyue took a step forward... only to collide with an invisible wall. Lanfen sure was taking no chances.
With a sigh, she stepped back and shut the door, but did not let go of the knob.
"I'm tired"she mumbled to the empty hall.
She felt like every ounce of energy inside of her had been snatched away by someone, leaving her quivering with painful exhaustion.
The sound of a whistle.
A pair of red eyes.
Both of them were right here in this house. Yingyue was younger than her. She had been just a child when her parents were murdered, and there was simply no way she could have been involved. But the same could not be said for the other one, the one whom the red eyes truly belonged to. It was within the Meng clan's ability to infiltrate minds through music.
Had Lanfen somehow manipulated Yingyue into killing her parents?
And the red eyes... Huang Yichen, no doubt. Xinyue did not want to believe it, but it was as glaring as the sun. Cases of demonic possession were not anything new, but then Huang Yichen had died fifty years ago. Could it really be possible for his soul to simply pervade a body,or had someone initiated that somehow?
Xinyue's head was throbbing, and she shook it from side to side.
Lanfen had not been surprised in the slightest when Yingyue's eyes turned red,as if she had known all along that it would happen. And if she knew, did Zhipeng know as well? And Yingyue? Was the girl a pawn or a fellow conspirator?
"No", she mumbled.
No.
There was no way, no way at all. A-Yue was kind, and sympathetic, and innocent, and a far better person than she could ever be.
There was a lot Xinyue did not know, but she was convinced of that.
*
*
*
The weeks passed in a blur for Yingyue, and before she knew it, the time came to return to the Mist Oasis. However, she had no idea that her mother had decided that only Xinyue would be resuming her lessons at the Pan sect until Lanfen broke the news at dinner.
Yingyue's melon seeds turned to sawdust in her mouth.
"What?"she blurted out.
"You heard me"Lanfen responded, her gaze fixed deliberately on the array of dishes before her.
"Why?".
"Because I say so".
"Why do you say so?".
Lanfen's lips pursed. Not from annoyance, Xinyue noticed, but from worry. She clearly had not told Yingyue what actually happened at the party, and now she was not sure what answer to give to her daughter's question.
Xinyue could not resist helping her out.
"You're still ill, remember?"she said softly to her sister.
"I'm not..."Yingyue paused,then bit her lip.
"Yes, you are"Lanfen replied"it would not be a good idea to send you somewhere so far away from home".
This silenced Yingyue, and she picked sulkily at her meal.
"My friends..."she mumbled.
"Your friends aren't going to die off or anything,"Lanfen said"you'll still get enough opportunities to see them again".
"My training?".
"You forget we have a sect of our own here".
The girl huffed a breath, but did not protest further.
"When will father return?"Xinyue asked quietly.
Lanfen's eyes shot to her, and the Saintess fixed a stare on her plates.
"Soon, he said,"Lanfen replied dismissively.
Xinyue knew better than to ask how soon.
Then, without ceremony, Lanfen rose to her feet and walked away with a casual "I have work to do" thrown over her shoulder.
The girls looked, at the same time,at all those plates, still topped with cooling food.
Lanfen had barely eaten.
*
*
*
*
Yingyue had one request, for Xinyue to spend the last night before her departure with her.
No one objected.
So the girls lay right next to each other on Yingyue's enormous bed and stared at the paper stars Yingyue had tacked to the ceiling.
It brought back memories of the days before Xinyue got her own room. The days after the deaths of her parents when she had been tormented by nightmares and had to spend the tedious nights with her younger sister.
"Jiejie"Yingyue mumbled.
"Hm?".
"Jiejie".
"Need anything?".
"Nothing. I just like hearing you respond".
Speechless, Xinyue chuckled.
"Really?".
"Really,"Yingyue replied quite seriously.
Xinyue merely smiled.
Outside, the night wind whispered, blowing its frigid breath against the shuttered windows.
"Jiejie".
"Let me guess, you just want to hear me respond?".
A small laugh left Yingyue's lips as she replied "Nope".
She rolled onto her side to stare at her sister.
"You're pretty, Jiejie".
"You're even prettier".
Yingyue shook her head, snuggling closer.
"I'm not"she said.
Xinyue looked at her, unvoiced disagreement written all over her face.
"I've been thinking of a lot of things, Jiejie. Will you listen?".
"Of course. What's the first?".
Yingyue threaded her fingers through her sister's before she began to speak.
"I'm glad, that you respond when I call. And I wonder, if a day ever comes when I call and you don't answer, I wonder... what would I do with myself then?".
"Silly you,"Xinyue also turned onto her side to get a better look at her sister"you should know that isn't ever going to happen. So there's no need to wonder".
Yingyue smiled brightly, looking into Xinyue's soft eyes.
"The second,"she continued"is this. I'm... scared".
"Of what?".
"I'm not sure. I don't have those nightmares anymore, and mother has assured me that I will recover from my illness. Still, I feel this dread".
"Since when?".
"Since the party. Since those things showed up".
"It's likely just a reaction to the fear you felt back then. You did pass out from it".
"I think so too. I probably shouldn't worry".
"You shouldn't. And the third?".
"A-Chen".
"What about him?".
"He doesn't seem very happy. And I wonder if he'll be happy in heaven".
"The stories say everyone in heaven is happy. That's why people work so hard to get in".
"Stories can lie".
"Yes, they can. But no one has heard the gods complaining or anything, so...why are you laughing, A-Yue?".
"I was trying to picture it,"Yingyue tittered"the gods complaining".
"Is it that funny?"Xinyue retorted.
But there was a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
"What were you thinking about, Jiejie?".
"Nothing".
"It's not possible to think about nothing".
Xinyue smiled, lovingly.
"Do you remember when we became friends?" she asked.
"Uh huh".
Mo Xiang and her family had been travellers, but they had also been spending new year at Peony Halls for as long as Yingyue could remember. Yet, even though they saw each other annually, Yingyue and Xinyue had barely known each other. Then that unfortunate day came.
Xinyue had returned from stargazing only to meet her parents' corpses. She had screamed herself hoarse, attracting the servants,then Zhipeng, Yingyue and Lanfen.
After all efforts to separate her from the corpses had failed, Lanfen had knocked her out, much to Zhipeng's chagrin.
On waking up hours later, Xinyue had huddled in a corner of the guestroom even though her parents' bodies had been removed. She had refused to speak,or sleep,or eat,or even move.
That is, until Yingyue snuck into the room. The younger girl had taken one look at Xinyue,then proceeded to tidy up the room, chattering jovially to Xinyue, completely unbothered by the latter's stony silence. When she was done, she had settled before the guqin placed on a nearby table and began to play such earsplitting notes that the other girl just had to look up and say something.
"You're not playing it right"she had said.
"Why don't you show me how to play it,then?" Yingyue had offered.
Xinyue had blinked, clearly taken aback by the offer, but had eventually complied.
That was when it had begun. As Xinyue's fingers had danced along the strings, she had somehow known, that her happiness lay with this girl.
Presently, Xinyue squeezed her sister's hand gently.
"A-Yue... I'm so happy I got to meet you".
Yingyue smiled,as if she had been waiting for those words all day.
"Me too, Jiejie".